i sat on the floor of the porch swinging my legs. It was june, school had let out the week before and the summer stretched ahead of me.

I had on my usual warm weather fare, plaid shorts and my sisters t shirt from the year before, ankle socks and canvas sneakers. They scuffed in the dirt sending up waves of dust.

it was after dinner and I was enjoying an orange popsicle, the juice running down my hand sticky the smell of the two wooden sticks giving me the shivers.

Something was going on across the street. I saw that man drive up in his blue dodge dart. The muffler hanging down, backfiring as he parked. He was sweating as he got out of the car wiping his forehead with a cotton hankerchief from his pocket. I watched him lumber up the steps in his white shirt stained, and suspenders,

banging on the screen door. I heard the dog barking . she opened the door a crack to ask him his business.

I knew it meant trouble. I figured because we had that kind of trouble a few months back. the same man arguing with my father in the front room while my sister and were having dinner. My mother smoking and telling us to hush.